I dove with Grand Turk Diving Company during a cruise stop over 6/8/15. We try to get away from the ship and 3000 other cruisers whenever possible so my family booked the small beach day-pass on Bohio. I tried to dive with Bohio but they wanted double what GTDC and Oasis (via Carnival) wanted, $124 for 2 tanks with all gear needed.
My day with Chris, Jason and Smitty at GTDC was perfect from start to finish. I prearranged with Al and Chris to bring my own reg and computer. They said whatever I brought they would accommodate. Taking a taxi at the cruise port was no problem. I shared a ride with a couple looking for a quite beach so he just charged me $5 for the ride to GTDC and took them on to Pillory. When I got their early, Smitty welcomed me and Chris signed me in and told me the price would be less since they are now able to waive the tourism tax. She could have pocketed the difference but did not.
Jason setup the gear and checked out my reg. When he found my BC hose was the wrong size he happily swapped it out with one of his. I was the sing for the ship, the also on the small boat were 2 older couples who have bene staying on the island for years. I talked to another cruiser who booked via Carnival. He was fine with the 2 boats of about 8 excursion divers each.
At GTDC both Jason and Smitty were great, setting up everyone’s gear, verifying their dive profiles, plans, experience and personal goals for the trip.
We dove Amphitheater about 2 miles north of their shop. Beautiful 85.f day with 80.f water. Amphitheater with a large coral bowl with a 50mx50m sandy bottom and a swim-through on the lower East side. Smitty had me go first. It was amazing. From 75ft in the bowl it opened into a deep blue abyss at 80ft. It felt like space with deep blue in every direction. Circling the bowl heading back to the boat we found a hawksbill sea turtle, a pair of ~18 inch french angel fish and 20” blue parrot fish all playing together. Smitty and the turtles appeared to be old friends, as he coaxed him into the middle of our small group for photos and playtime. The swim back was a gradual ascent from 60 to 30 feet. My computer said no deco stop was needed. But I still took 3 minutes at 15’ just to be safe.
On the way back south Smitty took us by Bohio to say hello to my family. Everyone on the boat was very supportive and friendly. No one was in a rush.
During the surface beak Smitty, Jason and I about the area and great T&C dive spots, their back grounds and obvious love of diving and the islands. ( Jason who could not swim 4 years ago is now an instructor about to do his 1000th dive. Other than being a Raiders fan he is seems like a smart guy. GO BRONCOS)
I asked Smitty for some tips on how to improve my sills. He gave me advice on trim weight management, air conservation, and how I could glide/kick and breath-out better.
The second dive was also a wall dive, we started in a Garden Eel bed where Smithy prodded a couple out of their holes for us to hold and take pictures with the tiny creatures. Then over to the wall for a swim around at about 65’ where 3 groupers followed us eagerly anticipating a discarded lionfish. We saw just a small LF about 20’ below but did not make a point to go after it. We fished the dive back in the eel bed playing eels and a few conchs till our air ran low. On this dive I practiced the tips Smitty gave me about breathing out in slow steams and was surprised to find I still had 600lbs of air when others were surfacing. I am usually the first to run out of air so it was nice to be last out of the pool for a change.
Smitty secured the gear, swapped my hose back out and ferried me all the way back to the cruise port. Dropping me on the beach 100m from the dock with an hour to spare.
All together a near perfect day of excursion diving. I cannot wait to go back to Grand Turk or T&C. Think I’ll skip Carnival next time.
---------- Post added June 16th, 2015 at 12:26 PM ----------
Jason is great. About to do his 1000th dive.
Good looking kid. I am sure he has lots of stories about the ladies visitng the island.
